Official 330/350 (2008 and newer) Thread

sundancer350 said:
I am am sorry but I don't see anything related to my engines? Did I get the wrong link?
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To flush your engines you need to replace your sea water with another water source. The SeaFlush allows you to do that.
It doesn't matter which specific engines you have, it comes down to giving your engines a different source of water. Your engines are pulling water from the bottom of your boat, through a strainer and then into your engine.

Do you know which model engines you have? Stern drive or V drive? This would help when people give you advice specific to your boat.
 
I have Mercury 496 Mag
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Ethan's Tank said:
Bought one at the annapolis boat show last year, been waiting to try it out this year
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Works pretty well. I will say this from my first usage last season, I got a fair amount of "leakage" spilling out over the strainer. I found adding some extra pressure by really stretching out the bungees helped some. I also used the folded paper towel trick as a bit of a gasket which also helped some. Together I was able to do what I needed to do. Also, I found using the 5 gallon bucket worked, but I had to do a bunch of "priming" by pouring pink right into the hose to get it mostly full prior to dunking it into the bucket. Then a lot of time was wasted by losing prime before starting the system up (see pink leakage issue from above!).

My improvements that I'll be trying this year include the following: I'm making a gasket out of some thin sheet neoprene that should help seal the unit much better than the paper towel tick. I suspect I'll still need to really clamp down on the bungees to assist in the seal. Also I'm configuring a PVC connector that is drilled into the bottom of the 5 gal bucket so that I can attach the hose to this instead of going above the waterline (i.e. pink in the bucket) with the hose. This should have gravity help to prime and keep the pink flowing once I start. I'm sure with these two changes things will be much smoother this year.

Man I hate talking about this stuff... all the spring polishing talk is much more appealing!
 
Has anyone attempted shooting grease into the hatch arm zerks on a v-drive 08 era 330? It looks like it would require a small gun with a 90 degree 3 ft arm!
 
We've been using out 2008 330 as much as possible since buying it in late July, and I'm having 2 odd issues that I'm hoping y'all have feedback on. The 8.1 Horizons had 135 hours on them when we bought it, and the original owner did not use the boat much at all of the last 2+ years. I had a full service on the motors.

First issue: during our first week on the boat, the starboard water pressure sensor malfunctioned, which caused VesselView to report that the starboard motor was overheating (even though the same VesselView system reported it running at 158 degrees!). Replacing the sensor fixed the issue.

Last week I had the boat hauled out, bottom paint redone, new zincs, and some other minor maintenance items (it was out of the water for 9 days), and on Friday I sailed her down from the San Juans into Lake Washington (I'll share some photos soon). On the cruise, I had to quickly slow down to avoid a minefield of crab pots that were hard to see. As I accelerated, at 900 RPM, the VesselView alarm went off, reporting the same alarm – starboard engine overheating. I figured out that if I put the starboard motor in neutral, gave the port motor some gas (up to 1500 RPM), and then once the boat was moving, put the starboard motor in gear, and it was fine. As soon as we stopped, I checked the sea strainers, but they were clean.

I happened again today. The first time it went off was when we were leaving the slip right at 900 RPM, the engines were warm but not at the normal 160 temp.

The second time it happened was as we were approaching the marina, just as I slowed down. As you all know, if I slow down quickly, a wave of water comes towards the back of the boat. When I was turning the alarm off, I noticed that both engines were up to 165 degrees, but they quickly dropped to 158. I suspect that that wave of water reduces the flow of exhaust water from the underwater exhaust pipes.

My mechanic is puzzled by this, and is thinking that there might be air trapped in the line, perhaps from the haul out.

Second issue: my wife & I were fishing, and I was running with the port motor only (starboard was off), just putting it in gear at about 660 RPM. Since we were going against a 1-2 knot current, this kept us going at about 2 knots. After 15 minutes, the port motor RPMs starting roughly and then it stalled. I couldn't restart it, so I fired up the starboard motor. Since my wife is a hardcore fisherwoman, we kept fishing (she caught a 16 pound king salmon, so all was not lost).

I then did some further testing: With the starboard motor off, the port motor consistently stalls when running a low RPM (650 - 700). I can restart it by (a) turning off the ignition switch and (b) waiting 10 minutes. Then it restarts. The starboard motor runs just fine when the port motor is off (issue #1 not withstanding).

My mechanic did some research, and suggested the solution is to disconnect the wire that connects the 2 engines, which is used to sync the speeds between the two. I use the sync feature on the throttles. I realize that the 330 is not the ideal fishing boat--we got a ton of weird glances from all the other 'fishing' boats--but it just seems odd to me.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.
 
First winter with the boat, and I decided to heat the engine room, rather than winterize the motors, since we have plans to use the boat in December.

I purchased 2 Caframo Pali 400 Watt Engine Compartment Heaters, on sale at Fisheries Supply. I installed one of them on the forward engine room bulkhead (see photo at http://www.joshpix.com/Private/Boatposts/n-sMBxHR/).

However, I could not find an outlet in the engine room, so I ran the cord up through the cut out into the bottom of the storage locker under the sink in the cockpit. When I have more time, I will run the cord through the cut out that the sink drain runs through, and then I will install the 2nd one in the aft of the engine room, and will try to run the power cord up through the same hole.

I think I'd like to have an outlet in the engine room, which will make it easier to plug/unplug the heaters (since I'll remove them in the summer). I also ordered a wifi temperature sensor, which has an iPhone app that alerts you if the temp drops below a set level. That will enable me to keep tabs on the engine room temperature during cold snaps.
 
I use these on my oil pans.
http://www.amazon.com/Kats-24150-Watt-Universal-Heater/dp/B000I8TQD6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445831920&sr=8-2&keywords=oil+pan+heaters

I would suggest this for you and run them 24/7. It makes the parts you want in the engine room warm and heat radiates out from there. With the Caframo, you are trying to heat the engine compartment to make the engines warm. That's fine, but use both. If the power goes out, it will take little time for the engine room to get cold. If the blocks are warm, it will buy some time before things start cracking.

I'm not a marine electrician, but I think you may be creating a hazard by installing an outlet in the engine compartment. Did you ever see an arc while plugging something into AC? That arc can cause an explosion. You may need to hard wire the AC stuff in your bilge.

Joshpix, sorry I have no answers for you.
 
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As JV II mentioned an outlet in the engine compartment is likely a hazard. It would also, at minimum, need a GFI. This may be a question to post in the mechanical forum.

As for removing the sync cable between the engines I can't imagine a Mercruiser certified mechanic would suggest this. First off, do you have DTS? I'm assuming you do. I can imaging this causing some serious issues. Secondly, your boat should run with one engine. Part of the safety of having two is having one to get you home if one fails.

I could be wrong, but these boats/engines are not really setup to be used the way you described. Were you running one engine to save fuel? You'll make your engine hours lopsided, which I know my surveyor said is something they look for. At idle, your engines don't burn that much gas, so you're not saving that much by not running both.

Also, if you have DTS your boat has a trolling mode. It works really well in my experience.

My best advice for your engine issues is to make sure you have a Mercury certified mechanic look over them. If all else fails, reach out to SeaRay with your questions.
 
I'm looking to replace my snap davits with a system that lets me keep the boat horizontal, something like the Hurley davits. Given that the integrated swim platform is narrower than most, I'm having trouble finding a solution.

Any recommendations? Photos would be appreciated!
 
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The 2008 330 I purchased last year came with group 27 batteries. With the 8.1 Horizons, you could only start the engines with everything else turned off. I contacted Searay, who was very responsive, and they recommended group 31 batteries. At that time, West Marine had a sale of something like $100 off each battery, so I bought them.

Installing was another issue - the group 31s are slightly bigger than the 27s, by less than 1" in length. They all fit into the trays, but the factory cables weren't long enough -- by about 3/8" -- just the red positive cables. So I had to have 2 new ones made and installed.

Good news, no more issues starting the motors.
 
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